As extremely high bandwidth access networks become more accessible to residential subscribers, they enable service providers of these networks to integrate voice, video, and data providing more convenience for end customers and creating new service opportunities. Due to the multi-service nature of these new services, networks need to support multiple simultaneous application sessions to a single subscriber. For instance, a subscriber can initiate a video session to watch a movie and sign on to an instant messaging session all at the same time. Once these sessions are established, the network needs to allow the subscriber to manipulate the video session and the instant messaging session.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for integrating video and instant messaging application sessions in a packet network, e.g., a SoIP network.